


First Steps

by axonsandsynapses



Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Canon Compliant, Gen, Mentions of canon character death, Rey Skywalker
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-31
Updated: 2016-01-31
Packaged: 2018-05-17 09:19:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 956
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5863456
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/axonsandsynapses/pseuds/axonsandsynapses
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rey, and the original Trio. Three first meetings.</p>
            </blockquote>





	First Steps

**Author's Note:**

> Most of the rough draft of this was written over a single lunch break in a sudden attack of Star Wars Feelings.
> 
> Warning for Luke and his inevitable Skywalker Angst™

When Han first meets her, he’s a little busy reveling in finding the Falcon (coming _home_ ) and then running for his life (which, really, feels just as familiar as sitting back in the pilot’s seat, and isn’t _that_ depressing). He only has time for a vague impression of ragged clothing and a gangly, undernourished frame; the resounding knowledge that _she’d_ _flown_ _his ship._

Later though, watching her rewire circuits like it’s second nature - exuberant and bright and very, very young - he’s uncomfortably reminded of a boy decades gone, a dumbass kid who’d been overwhelmed but so excited at getting to see the galaxy.

Oh, she definitely has steel in her spine, a fierceness that achingly reminds him of Leia. And he recognizes her ingenuity and practicality and prickliness, her scrappy fists and nimble fingers.

(He knows all too well what it takes to survive in this cesspit of a galaxy, fighting alone for so long it’s the only thing you know).

But when he watches her gaze out at Takodana with wide eyes, wondering at a galaxy so much more incredible than she ever imagined on her desert junkyard of a planet, all he can see is a farm boy staring out of the Falcon, lost in amazement at the universe and all the adventures it might hold.

He feels something warm stir in his chest, a little akin to when he watched Luke’s face light up with the stars, a little akin to when he first cradled Ben in his arms.

_Oh hell,_ his practical side mutters to the rest of his stupidly sentimental brain. _Not a fucking ‘nother one._

\---

The moment Leia lays eyes on the girl, she _knows_.

Han had suspected, of course.

(“The girl… Rey,” he’d murmured during a lull in the preparations. “I look at her, and all I can see is Luke, fresh off Tatooine…” He’d tried for his signature smirk, but his eyes were sad and soft and wistful.)

(Leia had just silently stepped closer and clasped his hand.)

So, yes. She’d had warning. But as Rey steps off the Falcon, Leia feels certainty hit her like a souped up landspeeder, the way it had so many years ago when Luke looked at her and said “sister.”

_Damn it, Luke, you’ve got some fucking explaining to do._

Leia sees and _knows_ and studies the girl who stands somberly on the tarmac. _Another Skywalker, just what the galaxy kriffing needs._ She can’t tell for the life of her if the thought comes sarcastic or genuine.

Another Skywalker, young and fierce and standing alone in the face of shock and exhaustion and grief.

Leia is old and fierce and standing alone, with one more hollow spot in her chest where _family_ used to be. But somehow today, in the midst of the chaos and the loss and the struggle to hold her head high through it all, today she’d found family, too. So Leia steps forward and wraps her arms around her niece.

She grabs and holds on tight, letting the weight of _family_ settle warm against her heart.

\---

He feels her as soon as the Falcon drops out of hyperspace. A sudden _presence_ , not there yet, but fast approaching. If he strains, he can feel Chewbacca and R2-D2 with her, but they’re faint compared to the ripples she leaves in the Force.

To be honest, he’s been expecting someone to come, ever since the cacophony of pain and panic and subsequent horrible _emptiness_ of the Hosnian system (an echo of a memory, _as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced…_ )

He’d been expecting _her_ since he felt something in the Force stir and shift and _wake up_ a few days ago.

But then he’d felt the tearing, wrenching void of Han’s death, the replying stab of _shock-grief-despair_ from Leia, and he’d lost the will to prepare for whomever was surely on their way. (And he wonders if that says something awful about him, that a single death hurt even more than the slaughter of billions...)

So he waits, knowing that he really should go down to meet them (he owes Chewie and Artoo _that_ at least, owes them so much he doesn’t even know where to begin…) but unable to force himself to do anything more than stare blankly out at the waves. He can’t even bring himself to turn around, not until she’s mere steps behind him.

The girl holds out his father’s lightsaber, and he abruptly wonders if this is what Obi-Wan felt all those years ago - staring at eyes familiar but new, the weight of legacy and history and countless mistakes in their gaze. If Obi-Wan’s shoulders were also heavy with guilt and regret, if he’d felt a faint flutter of hope in his chest.

If he’d been scared just as absolutely shitless.

He closes his eyes, and his mind dredges up another old memory, Yoda’s last words an ironic echo.

_Luke... there is another Skywalker..._

He hasn’t seen Yoda’s force ghost in decades, but he can practically hear his old teacher cackle at Luke’s surprise, at how thrown he is by the fact the words hold relevance again. ( _Luke... the Force runs strong in your family... pass on what you have learned…_ )

And really, he should have known. Should have known that she was just as stubborn a survivor as the rest of them. Should have felt that the recent awakening in the force was _her_ , bright and strong and _too damn familiar_.      

He takes a deep breath, drawing on the energy of the waves and the wind and the ruins that surround him. Mustering all the strength he can gather.

Luke opens his eyes, and takes a step forward.

**Author's Note:**

> -cue end credits music-
> 
> Obi-Wan’s force ghost is meanwhile lurking just out of frame, rolling his eyes and muttering about Skywalker boys and their _goddamn theatrics_.


End file.
